Leather-cutting machine.



A. 1. GAGNE.

LEATHER CUTTING MACHINE.,

APPLICATION min ma. 2o. 1916.

Patented Jan. 2, 1917.

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LEATHEMQGUTTNG MACHINE.

Specmcation'of Letters Patent.

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Application med. Horch 20, 1916. Serial Ito. 65,51.

To all fwtom t may concern: l y

Be it known that I, ARTHUR J. GAGNE, citizen of the United States, residing at Minneapolis, in the county of Hennepin and v State o Minnesota, have invented a. certain new and useful 1m rovement in Leather- Cutting Machines, o which the following is a specification.

'My invention relates to improvements in leather-cutting machines, and the object of my invention is to provide a leather-cutting machine embodying a pair of rotary cutters which may be operated to cut leather into pieces of desired different shapes, and which, inV its operation, shall alwaysvmake its cut directly and smoothly through said leather in a direction at right angles to the opposite side surfaces thereof.

Another object of my invention is to so construct such leather cutting machine that each member of its pair of rotary cutters shall be rotatable in a different direction and at a different speed with respect to' the other, and one member of which shall be of such form as will adapt it also to act as a feeding device for moving leather progressively into engagement with the coacting edges of said members, said one of said members to be also adapted by its form operatively to act on that portion of the leather disposed on one side of said members with a tendency to force such portion against the adjacent side of the other member, and to act on that portion of the leather disposed on the opposite side of said mein bers with a tendency to force such portion away from both of said members, whereby said members may operate more advantageously to n make a smooth vertical out throughout a desired course.

I accomplish these obj eots by devices illustrated v; in the accompanying drawings wherein- Figure 1 is a plan view of one form of a leather-cutting machine embodying my invention; Fig. 2 is a view of the same in vertical section on brokenline of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a. view of the same in end elevation, showing that end of the structure where a pair of rotary cutters'are located; Figs. 4, 5; 6 and 7 are views in side lelevation of different forms of rotary cutters that are adapted each to constitute the lower member of a pair of rotary cutters which may be embodied in my invention; and Fig.

8 is a modified form of the upper member of a pair ofvrotary cutters that may form a part of my invention.

Referring to the drawings, throughout which like reference numerals designate like parts, as shown in Fig. 2, 10 is a table upon which rests the base 11 of a cast metal frame which frame includes an integral lug l2 that extends upwardly from said base 11 at its left hand end portion and which further includes two integral standards 13 and 14C which are spaced a art and are disposed to extend upwardly imm the right hand end portion of said base 11 to support an arm 15 which is integral with the top ends `of both of said standardsl and 14 and which extends horizontally therefrom to a vertical line registering with the left hand end of the base 11. The extended end port1on of the arm 15 is provided with an integral lug 16 which extends downwardly toward the lug 12 to a point at a short'distance therefrom. The top side of the arm 15 is provided with an upwardly extended integral fin 17 disposed lengthwise thereof4 which serves to give rigidity to said arm 15. Rotatably mounted within said metal frame are two shafts 18 and 19 horizontally disposed one above the other to extend in a lengthwise direction therethrough in paral- 85 lel with each other, the upper shaft 18 of which is disposed in 'bearings formed in the downwardly projecting lug 16 and in the upper portion of both of the standards 13 and 14;, while the lower shaft 19 is disposed in bearings formed in the upwardly projecting lug 12 and in the lower portion of said standards -13 and 14, as shown more clearly in Fig. 2.

That end portion of the shaft 18 that projects outwardly from the lug 16 is provided with a left-hand screw-threaded portion 20, of reduced diameter upon which isconcentrically mounted a circular cutter 21 that is provided with a concentri'cally disposed hole 100 that is tapped with a left-hand screw-thread and whose' outer side surface describes a vertical plane, while its inner side surface is formed to be convex from said. vertical plane to the periphery of its hub portion.

with a right-hand screw-threaded portion 11o 22, also of reduced diameter, upon which is concentrically mounted a circular cutter 23 ofthe form of a thick disk provided with a hub 25, said cutter 23 being provided with a concentrically disposed hole that is tapped with a right-hand screw-thread, and the peripheral surface of ,its disk being milled with notches, as indicated in Fig. 3.

The shafts 18 and 19 are so relatively disposed that a portion of the outer side Sur.- face of the cutter 21 engages with a portion ofthe annular inner surface of the cutter 23 whereby the cutting edge of the cutter 23 is formedat the inner edge ofthe milled periphery of the disk-like portion of said cutter 23, as shown more clearly in Fig. 2.

On the shaft 18 is fastened a collar 26 that is disposed to engage the inner side surface of the standard .14, and that end portion of the kshaft 19 that projects outwardly from the standard 14 is provided with an extended portion 27 of larger diameter which forms a shoulder that is spaced from the outer side of said standard 14, and freely mounted on said shaft 19 at a point between said shoulder and said standard 14 is a gearwheel 28 the inner end of whose hub engages with the outer side of said standard 14, whereby said shoulder and the hub portionof said gearwheel 28 may act conjointly with the collar 26 on the shaft 18 to maintain the cutters 21 and 23 in engagement with each other.

That end portion of the shaft 18 that p'rojects outwardly 'from the standard 14 is provided with a pinion 29 that engages with the teeth of the gearwheel 28, and is further provided with an extended portion 30 to which may be connected any suitable means (not shown) for communicating rotary motion to said shaft 18. y

The outer end portion of the hub of the gearwheel 28'is provided with teeth 31 of the form shown in Fig; 1 which teeth 31 project over the extended portion 27 of the shaft 19 normally to engage with correspondingly formed teeth 32 which are integral with a grooved sleeve 33 that is mounted on the portion 27 in such manner as will adapt it to be movable only in endwise directions with respect to said portion 27,

.whereby sidewise movements of said sleeve 33, acting like. a clutch, may engage and disengage the teeth 31 and 32 thus to permit or to interrupt the communication of rotary motion from the shaft 18 to the shaft 19 as may be desired at different times.

To move the sleeve 33 in endwise directions I have provided a bifurcated hand lever 34, whose bifurcated members straddle said sleeve 33 to extend downwardly therefrom to a bracket 35, where their lower ends are pivotally secured to said bracket 35, and

each of said bifurcated members are provided with a stud (as stud 36 indicated b a dottedfcircular line in Fig. 2) which 1s 1 sposed to project from the inner side of said -member into a radially disposed hole formed in the adjacent one of oppositelydisposed and disunited semilcircular members. of a ring 38 which is disposed loosely withln the roove of the sleeve 33, whereby when the ever'34 is moved toward the left-hand the shaft 19 will revolve in response to: the rotation of the shaft 18, and whereby when said lever 34 is moved toward the right-hand then said shaft 19 will cease to revolve irrespective of the continuous rotation of the Shaft 18.

As indicated in Fig. 4, kthe periphery of the disk portion of the cutter 23, of the shaft 19, is milled with notches extending in directions of a right-hand spiral which spiral notches tend to crowd the leather operated on toward the cutting edge of the cutter 21 when the cutters 21 and 23 rotate in the directions indicated by the arrows in Fig. 3.

In Fig. 5, I have shown a modified form of a cutter 39 which corresponds in function to the cutter 23 and which is provided with a groove 40, one side surface of which is in a plane at right angles with the axis of said cutter 39, while its other side surface forms the frustum of a cone, the rst named side surface being adaptedto engage with the outer side surface of the cutter 21. The periphery of the cutter 39, on the left-hand side ofthe groove 40, is milled with righthand spiral grooves, while on the left-hand side it is milled with left-hand spiral grooves, whereby, in the. operation of cutting leather, as Such leather is fed against the `cutters by said grooves, such grooves will tend to crowd or force the leather (on both sides of the cutters) toward said cutters.

In Fig. 6, I have shown another form of vcutter 41 corresponding in function-- to the cutters 23 and 39, the periphery of which cutter 41 is divided into two portions having different diameterswhereby is provided an annular surface 42 which is adapted to engage with theouter side surface of the cutter 21, that portion of -said periphery of larger diameter being milled with righthand spiral notches, while that portion of smaller diameter is milled with left-hand spiral notches. -When the cutter 41 is employed in conjunction with the cutter 21, then the inner side convex portion of said cutter 21 will, in the operation of cutting leather, force the moving leather, on the inner side of the cutters, downwardlyon to that portion of the periphery of the cutter 41, which is smaller in diameter, and the spiral grooves of both portions of the periphery of said cutter 41 will feed the leather with a tendency to force the leather on both sidesr of the cutters toward said cutters.

Inl Fig. 7, I have illustrated another modified form of cutter 43 which corresponds in function to the cutters 23, 39 and 41, which cutter 43 is exactly like the cutter 39 except that its milled spiral grooves are extended in left-hand spiral around its periphery on both sides ofV a groove 44, whereby, when said cutter 43 is operatively employed in connection with the cutter 21, then, the moving leather on the outer side of said cutter 21 will be forced against.the outer face of said cutter 21 while that portion of such leather on the other side of said cutter 21 will be forced away from both cutters 21 and 43.

In Fig. 8, I have shown a modified form of cutter 45, which corresponds in function to the cutter 21, and such cutter 45 is provided with an integral convex portion 46 concentrically disposed on its outer face, which convex portion 46 is of a smaller diameter than the diameter of the cutting edge of said cutter 45, but in all other respects said cutter 46 is like the cutter 21.

In the operation of the cutter 45, in conjunction with any one of the cutters 23, 39, 41 and 43, the convex portion 46 and the opposite convex portion on the other side of the cutting edge of said cutter 45, both tend to force the leather downwardly on to the spiral grooves of the lower cutter.

Under different conditions of operation and for operating on different kinds and thicknesses 0f leather different ones of the cutters 21 and 46 and dierent ones of the cutters 23, 39, 41 and 43 may be more advantageously employed.

The gearwheel 28 on the shaft 19 is much larger than the pinion 29. on the shaft 18, whereby the shaft 19 will revolve more slowly than the shaft 18 in responseY to rotary motion communicatedto said shaft 18 and whereby the velocity of the cutting edge ofthe cutter 21 will greatly exceed the velocity of the cutting edge of the cutter 23, whereby the friction between the two cutters will tend to keep both cutters sharp, moreover, the velocity of the cutting edge of the cutter 21 will be greater than the Velocity of the moving leather that is being` cut whereby such leather will be cut more easily and more smoothly. f

Of course, the screw-thread of the lefthand screw-threaded portion 20 may be changed to be a right-hand screw-thread and the screw-thread of the right-hand screw-threaded portion 22 may be changed to be a left-hand screw-thread, but in such case the direction of rotation of the shafts 18 and 19 would be reversed and leather operated upon would approach the cutters from an opposite direction.

Obviously, my leather cutting machine, when constructed as illustrated and described, will be adapted to cut other sheet material than leather, as for instance, cardboard, textile fabrics, sheet lead and other soft sheet metal; and for some conditions of operation the clutch mechanism associated with the gearwheel 28 and the shaft 19 may be omitted and said gearwheel 28 be permanently fastened on said shaft 19 whereby said shaft 19 would then always rotate in response to a rotation of the shaft 18.

Manifestly, changes may be made in the forms, dimensions and arrangement of parts of my invention without departing from the spirit thereof.

What I claim is:

A leather-cutting machine of the class described, which embodies a frame; two shafts rotatably mounted in. said frame and disposed with their axes parallel with each other in different horizontal planes; a gearwheel freely mounted on the lower one of said shafts; clutch mechanism associated with said gearwheel and with said lower shaft whereby said gearwheel may be permitted to rotate while said lower shaftis at rest and whereby said lower-shaft may at desired times be caused to rotate in response to a rotation of said gearwheel; a pinion of smaller diameter than the diameter of said gearwheel mounted on the upper one of said shafts in a position to engage with said gearwheel, whereby said lower shaft normally shall revolve more slowly than said upper shaft; means forv imparting rotary motion to said upper shaft; and two circular rotary cutters mounted one on eachof corresponding ends of said shafts, said shafts being relatively disposed to cause an operative engagement of the circular cutting edges of said cutters.

In witness whereof I hereunto subscribe 105 my name this 8th day of March, A. D. 1916.

ARTHUR'J. GAGNE. Witnesses:

DELMA M. GAGNE, EvERE'rr MOON. 

